The Post has heard that the new Big Ten prime-time broadcast team for NBC Sports will have both a traditional and modern appearance.
According to insiders, NBC has poached Todd Blackledge from ESPN for their impending Saturday college football package and will pair him with 26-year-old play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle.
NBC declined to comment.
This will be Blackledge’s third network, following stints at CBS and ESPN. On Monday, he will likely broadcast the national championship for ESPN Radio, which will be his last job with the network. He is the number two college football game analyst for ESPN, behind Kirk Herbstreit.
Eagle, son of renowned play-by-player Ian, continues to ascend meteorically. In addition to being the voice of the Clippers on the radio, he acquired national recognition while announcing Nickelodeon NFL games alongside Nate Burleson. This season, he was also a play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports and NFL Network during NFL regular season games. He was a weekly play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports’ college football coverage.
NBC has a preference for employing the sons of successful sportscasters, as Jac Collinsworth, son of Cris, is the Notre Dame play-by-play announcer and a member of “Football Night in America” while Cris is the primary “Sunday Night Football” game commentator. Chris Simms, the son of Phil Simms, appears on both FNIA and Pro Football Talk with Mike Florio.
The Post previously reported that Maria Taylor, the host of FNIA, will also assume primary studio responsibilities for NBC’s upcoming coverage of the Big Ten.
In the upcoming seasons, the Big Ten will have a new football presentation that, for the first time in nearly four decades, will not feature ESPN. Fox will air Big Noon Kickoff at noon, CBS will handle the 3:30 hour, and then Eagle and Blackledge will air in prime time.
For next year, CBS will still carry SEC football – which complicated its Big Ten schedule a bit – but the next year all the SEC games will be on ESPN and its family of networks, while the Big Ten will be locked in at 3:30 on CBS squeezed around Fox and NBC.
»NBC recruits Todd Blackledge from ESPN to cover the Big Ten with Noah Eagle«